News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-04-28
MYSTERIES OF A DAY.
NOTABLE EVENTS CHRONICLED
BY THE PAPERS,
Gen. TayIor's Turkey-The Alaska
geala-Rupning 4 Muck-The
Michigan schoolmaster, Etc.

| Mrs. POLK, the W1doW OF James r.
Polk. tenth President Of the United
States, is over eighty years of age, but
she is in good health and she possesses
a memory of unimpaired vigor. She
resides in the old Polk homestead at
Nashville, Tenn, large, roomy, two
story building made OF brick.
IT is said that all the Nihilists arrested
in ST. Petersburg for completely in the
| recent unsuccessful plot on the Cars
| life. when taken into custody, Wore
| small bottles Of poison on their bOsoms,
and that secret agents had been deputed
to smash these bottles in the event Of
the assassin retreating FROM his task ct
| the last moment.
| Forty years ago an old lady in Bald
| win, Fla, about to die, made her child
rem promise not to bury her body. She
| threatened to haunt them if they did,
| and SO when she was dead they placed
the body il stout coffin OF Florida
| pine, placed it on the surface of the
| graveyard, and built strong log pen
| around it, The log house is in good
condition now, and so is the coffin with
in it.
One of the most eccentric rich men in
New York City is the venerable Benja-
min Richardson. He is said to be worth
| 81, O00, 900 OF more, but lives in a small
| ttlmble-down house in Harlem. He
| holds mortgage for $500, 600 against
| one of the most prominent insurance
companies in the city. Mr.. Richardson
owns the historic Washington coach,
which he let's out whenever there is
demand for this Revolutionary relic.
IT has transpired that when Prince
Alexander of Battenberg was first de-
| posed from the Bulgarian throne and
escorted out of the country by the sue
cessful conspirators, he accepted from
| them the sum Of 4, 900 francs with which
| to pay his way to his home at Darn
stadt. The money was handed to him
| at REM, in BeSsarabia, where the
Princes kidnappers parted with him.
A suit to recover the sum has been be-
gun by the rebels who made the loan.
TIE boring of an artesian well at Gal
weston shows on what peculiar founda-
tons the city rests. In the first place,
it stands on a narrow sand spit between
Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
After going through - feet of quick
sand the drill passed through blue clay,
II feet; coarse sand, 20; white clay,
10Y; sea mud, ST; olive clay, 116; sea
mud, 100; blue clay, %; sea mud, Il;
blue clay, AZ; total, Sos feet At
depth of 500 feet several palmetto logs
We're passed through.
RUFUS I. BUSH, the owner of the
COronet, was at one time a schOOlmaster
in Michigan. He married Michigan
girl, who has been a great help to him
in his upward career. He came to New
York soon after his marriage. He tried
agencies of different sorts, bought a dry
goods store, then a factory, and finally
got hold of an oil refinery. He is now
identified with the Standard Oil Com
pany. Mr.. Bush is large man, six
feet two in height, stately in movement,
prematurely gray, but still elastic OF
limb
A CORRESPONDENT who attended an
experience meeting in colored church
in Virginia says that new convert arose
to tell his experience. He told the
brethren and sisters all the sins of his
life, and more, too, with all their aggra-
vations. He confessed to every crime
known to the statutes and every sin
known to the decalogue. When he
paused for breath, gasping at his own
wickedness, a brother in the gallery
shouted solemnly: ''Put out dat lamp!"
''Why for?" asked the pastor. "Coz,"
said the solemn brother, ode viles, sin
uer done return"
THE extraordinary mortality in the
family of the Baron Duradd excited the
suspicious of the French Customs po-
lice after that gentleman had crossed
I
many months, travelling each time with
a Theoretically sealed coffin, and bathed
i'll tears over the demise of some near
relative. The last time they opened
the coffin against his fearful remon-
stranceS, and found i'll it, instead OF q
corpse, a mass of fine cigars and expen-
sive smoking tobacco, upon which no
duty had been paid. The Baron mourns
now in the Jail at Lille.
BEN. PERLEY PooRE tells the follow
ing story: Gen. Taylor said one day,
soon after his inauguration as President,
that he had never enjoyed turkey so
much as he had at New Orleans on his
way home from his Mexican campaign
1t was placed before him on the dinner
table at the st. Charles Hotel, and it
was not until he had been requested to
carve it that he ascertained that it WAS
of papier mache. When opened it was
found to contain, not stuffing, but
pair of major generals gold epaulettes
and a silk sash, a present from the artil-
lery battalion. '"Fhat, said the Gen
eral, "w-was a turkey worth having"
THOMAS STERLING, st. Louis bill
poster, became ambitious to go on the
stage, and so practised feat of placing
nine tables on top of each other and
doing a sOmersault Oh the ninth one.
He secured an engagement and made
his initial appearance before the foot
lights. The programme announced that
he would do ''his great pyramid table
specially, an act beyond description"
He had not quite completed the pyramid
whdn he fell to the floor, breaking his
nose and fracturing the bone over his
left eye, in addition to sustaining sew
eral severe bruises. He will return to
bill sticking as soon as he gets well.
THE contract between the United
States Government and the Alaska Com
mercial Company was made on August
q, 1870, for period of twenty years,
and it has but little over three years
more to run. The company is allowed
70 take 100, 600 sealskins a year. and it
PAYS an annual rental for ST. Paul and
st. Georges Islands of $50, 900 and q
tax OF S2.624 ON each skin taken and
shipped from the islands. The United
States paid Russia for Alaska So, 200, 900,
and the company claims that the books
OF the Treasury Department will show
that more than So, coo, 900 has been paid
to the Government by the Commercial
Company since 1870, and that more than
81, 900, 900 of customs duties on dressed
sealskins has been collected, and that
the United States the cost of the Alaska
purchase.
HE extreme delicacy of the sense of
smell III man has been shown by series
OF interesting experiments by Messrs
Fischer and Penzoldt In an empty
room of some $50 cubic metres capacity, !
and tightly closed, a small quantity of |
the particular substance to be detected |
was thoroughly mixed with the air, and |
the observer then admitted. Among
the different substances which were test |
ed IN this manner, it was found that the |
very smallest amount recognizable was |
.Ol of miligran of mercaptan. This |
quantity ditfused through the room suf
feed to make its distinctive character
appreciable in the small volume of pir
coming III contact with the nerves OF the
nose, from which it was estimated that
the Last, OOO, 900 part of milligram of
tins substance was recOgnizable-an in
tnlteslma1 quantity, passing cOnception.